Nirvanic Insights

For whom this was written

This was written for you, the earnest seeker for truth and full existential understanding. Anyone that is sufficiently open to new insights is welcomed to participating in this adventure through what humanity has discovered to be great spiritual truths. Though humanity and its members have passed through thousands of years and many ages of contemplations and understandings, these following teachings I deem to be the pinnacle of all that wisdom.

This has been and still is the spiritual enterprise of man, and these are the understandings that I humbly consider to be the great timeless insights into life and reality.

Timelessness and understanding is what I will strive to impart in this writing, insights that are inextricably linked to your essential nature and your existential condition no matter your situation, identity or place of origin.

That being said, if you deem yourself to be up for it and if you indeed are a seeker of timeless truths, I recommend you to read on as you just might find something that may illumine and lighten your spirit.

Introduction

Welcome to your timeless journey into yourself.

The mystical journey towards full existential understanding is a great adventure and the seeker of truth is the ultimate adventurer. Where the mystic dares go is nowhere else than the very depths of his own being, and it is in this depth that he finds himself exploring the invisible landscapes within his own body, mind and soul.

As it is so with practical life, so it is with the spiritual life, namely that when it comes right down to it experience is the only true knowledge.

The seeker of truth could in a sense be said to be religious but that could be misleading, especially when you consider the fact that the vast majority of religious people aren’t really seekers. Additionally and in my own humble view, most religious people lack the genuine spiritual insight that a seeker transformed into a mystic has, mainly because these “religious” people are still most likely bound by their cultural and psychological conditioning, something that the mystic inexorably transcends. The mystic can be said to be an individual who directly “experiences” his religion. Her religion isn’t something written somewhere on some scroll, but in existence itself and therefore in her own heart.

This book will try to reveal the teachings and expressions of some of the various mystics of the world. Drawing from many different schools of thought, traditions and religions I will convey powerfully and concisely what the mystical experience involves, and what it can help achieve for the earnest seeker with an open mind.

Each chapter will begin with my spontaneous contemplations and summary of each teaching, then it will follow up with relevant quotations by prominent individuals, masters and mystics from around the world.

However before we get started, I wish to clarify some important terms and keywords for you my friend and reader, as clarity is crucial for understanding of any sort. Having said that, because we human beings mostly use and rely on language for transmission of understanding, I find it necessary to say a couple things about some key terms that will be used in this arcane blissful scroll. (Smileyface)

First and foremost, what in gods name is a mystic?

Well, in my heart a mystic is someone who has through contemplation, prayer, meditation, acts and practices reached a state of consciousness where he feels himself to be interweaved with the essential source of the universe. In other words she finds herself to be experientially one with the Supreme Being or God.

That brings me to another term I wish to discuss, namely God or what I call the Supreme Being. Now I find it important to say that I don’t see God as an entity living somewhere else in the universe or somewhere beyond the universe. Rather I see the Supreme Being timelessly existing at all times and at all places simultaneously. In my book God isn’t some character out there but rather THE presence in here, in you. For a more secular approach, one could use the words awareness or consciousness to equate with God. Therefore atheists and agnostics don’t need to be alarmed or discouraged by the language use in this book.

Thirdly, what has a mystic to do with enlightenment?

Well enlightenment, or Buddhahood is a universal occurrence that sentient beings attain to when their seeing and understanding has become mature enough. They have dissolved their separate self identity with their own original consciousness. Moreover just to clarify, from my perspective a mystic is a Buddha and a Buddha is a mystic, they are indistinguishable as enlightenment or dissolution of the separate self is the objective.

That being said, these following insights can be thoroughly helpful for the earnest seeker of enlightenment, as they will go directly to the spiritual nexus of your being.

In other words, it’s a no bullshit approach to spirituality, hence the fancy subtitle of this book boldly declaring it.

If there’s nothing else you are wondering, not that you can telepathically communicate with me if you did have any objections, well if not, lets get going then.

Lets begin the great adventure to the spiritual core of you!

Teaching I: God is within you

God is not distant and god is not separate from you. This is indeed what all religions in essence point to however the trend of many religions for these past millennia’s has been quite the opposite. Which is that they have directly and indirectly created the sense of separation between the individual and the universal instead.

God need not be seen as an entity that is somewhere over there far far away, but should be understood to be an essential substrate for which all experience refers to. This is something all the great masters and mystics of the world have emphasized, namely that you will not find the light of the supreme in objects and materiality but within yourself. The objective world is merely an embellishment to the light that shines within, without the inner light nothing outer can appear.

This is a powerful message that focuses on your subjective experience as a human being; in a sense your experience is profoundly empowered. Because it urges you to become insightful and open to the possibility that the divine is not distant nor different from your essential nature. Perhaps one need not even call it divine, one could simply call it ones own existence.

The atheist as well as the religious person could participate in this experiential recognition of who or what it is that is within themselves. Perhaps in more secular terms, the statement that god is within should ideally give rise to the fascination of being an aware sentient being. When doing so, that is if one is sufficiently thirsty for true knowledge /gnosis/, one should trace back this subjective sense back to its source.

True knowledge is beyond the bodily, mental and emotional aspects of man. It is ones existential understanding of oneself and ones reality.

God could in this sense be equated with and as existence. Existence is within you. Well this is maybe an obvious thing you might say. My reply would be, yes and no.

Why?

Well precisely because the entire society and the dominating paradigm that permeates the majority of human societies is that the world is outside of us. From a spiritual lens this simply isn’t the case, the world is arising within. Again, the world is first and foremost derived from that which is within.

Well if truth be told, existence when fully grasped with your nirvanic eye is neither within nor without. It is formless and all pervasive. It’s like a formless screen that permeates all existence, and trillions of subjective sentient beings are appearing in it.

God’s presence could be seen as the screen itself, one totality, indivisible and when a being comes to this supreme understanding, he is sometimes viewed as an enlightened one, buddha or a mystic.

To say that God is within is truly one of the profoundest statements one can utter, as it automatically shifts our focus to our own subjective reality, and that is indeed where all the lasting spiritual truths are found.

Spiritual enlightenment isn’t something esoteric and complex, not at all! It’s rather something that is readily available when a being somewhere in the universe is mature enough to recognize it.

The teaching that God is within is one of these nirvanic insights and recognitions that has the power to bring you closer than ever to your own enlightened core.

Below are some handpicked quotations and excerpts from some prominent texts and some of the worlds insightfuls and mystics, quotations that resonate this timeless spiritual truth.

Quotations and Excerpts

”The Kingdom of God is within you.” The Bible

“The day of my spiritual awakening was the day I saw–and knew I saw–all things in God, and God in all things.” Mechtild of Magdeburg

”O Seeker, where dost thou seek me Lo, I am beside there I am neither in temple nor in mosque, I am neither at Kaaba nor at Kailash. Neither am I in rites and ceremonies Nor Yoga nor in renunciation Lamp burns in every house, O blind me, And you cannot see them….. Your Lord is near, you are climbing. The palm tree to see him Yoga and the telling of beads … These are naught to me.”Kabir

“Don’t seek God in temples. He is close to you. He is within you. Only you should surrender to Him and you will rise above happiness and unhappiness.”Leo Tolstoy

“The life of the spirit is not our life, but the life of God within us.”Teresa of Avila

“We men have one book in common which points to God. Each has it within himself, which is the priceless Name of God.”Jacob Böhme

Teaching II: Everything is One

“He who hears not me but the logos will say: All is one.” - Heraclitus

Consciousness is one, awareness is one, the universe is one, the multiverses are one, but we take ourselves to be many. Why?

Why not?

This dream of multiplicity is the game of life and in a sense it is precisely for this “game” or “dream” that we were born. In other daring words, it is this tasting of life that is the answer to that age-old question of man, what is the “meaning of life?”.

Is it really that simple? The meaning of life is just about experiencing?

Well yes, and of course the transcendence of what I call the “lesser aspects”. Now with that being said, consciousness has trillions of windows into the one reality from which it sees itself and experiences life. Consciousness appears to be playing the roles of many, but in truth is one and the same formless substrate that permeates existence.

When one sufficiently entertains this paradigm both intellectually and experientially, many (all) things reveal themselves to be traceable back to the one source, though one simultaneously understands why this oneness appears to be perceived as many.

The one is never divisible, though a dream can make it look so. When we go out for a walk on a sunny day on a crowded street and see all those busy faces rushing by us, each of them carrying with them a separate story, a separate identity, a separate “me” in their localized consciousness.

Very few of these individuals get to know the real them, that is experientially. Some of them may be intellectually convinced about certain universal truths, but unless you are the evidence of this timeless truth, it will not be your immediate reality and your direct experience.

The sage, the Buddha and the mystic are examples of human beings who have achieved this understanding of oneness beyond the concept of unity and duality.

That being said, we could also just call this oneness as “not-two” instead of one. Everything could also be said to be zero, or nothingness, emptiness, vastness instead of one.

But this does nothing to the real truth of the matter, that everything is what it is, some sort of a totality.

If your mind hurts by reading this, I’m here to comfort you by saying that of course the mind will be anxious and be hurt, what did you expect?

I mean what all these teachings point to is something beyond the mind, and we trying to understand it with the mind is a problem. It is the wrong instrument to use, that is if you want to go all the way and make “enlightenment” your reality. Though initially the mind or the intellect may try to feel it out, it is not just another “thing” or knowledge for the mind to grasp.

Enlightenment and truth is simply you being as you are. Your spiritual quest is to find out why you simply being you is sometimes so difficult and elusive sometimes. This glorious endeavour will inevitably bring you closer to yourself, and in the process dissolve all of which you are not.

“Jesus said, "I am the light that is over all things. I am all: from me all came forth, and to me all attained. Split a piece of wood; I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there."The Gospel of Thomas

“Nature has neither kernel, nor shell, she is everything, all at once.”Goethe

“The consciousness in you and the consciousness in me, apparently two, really one, seek unity and that is love.”Nisargadatta Maharaj

Teaching III: God is the ultimate seer

God cannot be seen. God is the seer of all things. He is there prior to every object that appears. Who or what could stand apart from god to objectively see her? Can there be a subject apart from the ultimate subjective presence of god? Whatever you do or think of cannot exist independent of your subjective experience of that seeing. If this is so, then what is your seeing made of? Do you stand apart from god’s ultimate subjectivity and sight, and furthermore can you indeed find this ultimate perceiver within yourself at this very moment?

These are the questions that have given birth to the greatest realizations and teachings of the worlds mystics and Buddhas. These are meditative and contemplative pathways that have the power to lead you back to your home, which is that indescribable ultimate placeless place of seeing.

This powerful teaching proclaims that, an absolute subjective perspective is the presence of god itself. Since we are all beings with an inevitable subjectivity, the question arises for the seeker, the question of how far back into ourselves one can trace back this subjectivity. Where does our simple human biological and psychological subjectivity have its limit and where doth the presence of god begin? Can we in fact find god immaculate vision within ourselves at this very moment or are we only playing meaningless games in our own minds as usual. Can we find gods awareness within since we are in fact beings that are aware and according to this teaching awareness in its essential form is god itself. This is a powerful question to contemplate; perhaps it is this very question that can bring you closer to the gates of the supreme than any other.

Since we are sentient beings, and supreme sentience is the mark of god, can we find the traces of this supreme sentience within ourselves?

Gods eye can’t be seen, and when you truly dive deep into your own reality, you will inevitably come to the place where you know that you in your purest essence cannot be seen. This begs the question, are you in your purest form identical with the eye of god?

Seeing isn’t limited to the senses or even the minds eye, but ones entire sentient existence can be seen as an eye looking out into the world that it finds itself in.

Contemplate, meditate and discover for yourself!

Quotations and excerpts

“I cannot show you God or enable you to see God because God is not an object that can be seen. God is the subject. He is the seer. Don’t concern yourself with objects that can be seen. Find out who the seer is. You alone are God.”Ramana Maharshi

”The eye with which I see God is the same with which God sees me. My eye and God’s eye is one eye, and one sight, and one knowledge, and one love.” Meister Eckhart

“You are the Solitary Witness of All That Is, forever free. Your only bondage is not seeing This.”Ashtavakra Gita

“It is as though you have an eye That sees all forms But does not see itself. This is how your mind is. Its light penetrates everywhere And engulfs everything, So why does it not know itself?”Foyan

”Know then, that both this visible world and that Which unseen is, alike are God Himself, Naught is, save God: and all that is, is God. And yet, alas! by how few is He seen, Blind are men’s eyes, though all resplendent shines The world by Deity’s own light illumined.” Attar

Teaching IV: All things Change

“Whatever has the nature of arising has the nature of ceasing.” - Gautama Buddha

”Panta Rhei”, everything flows, something the Greek philosopher mystic Heraclitus so poignantly put it. Everything is subject to change, every phenomenal thing is touched by the finger of time. Though death and decay are the emanations of time, time in itself need not be seen as an enemy or something intrinsically bad, but simply something necessary for experiencing to occur. Time is simply there, as all other laws of the universe are there.

That being said, there is one thing I’ve found in my contemplations and meditations to be beyond time.

Well, purely because your consciousness itself gives birth to time, and is therefore prior and beyond it. All other things are “victims” of time, matter, the world, atoms, rocks, mountains, cells, plants, animals, human beings, thoughts, emotions, ideas, ego…

Everything that you perceive is going to be swallowed by the mouth of Time, but nothing can touch your godly consciousness. What happens is actually the opposite, time gets consumed by your awareness the more you get in touch with your sense of presence.

Time becomes just like any other concept perceived, and will not be able to touch you if you don’t want it too. Now if you happen to be identified chiefly with your mind, thoughts, body and culture. Time will find a way to dishearten you, over and over again.

The wheel of samsara where trillions are “suffering” the maya-illusion, is also characterized by time, whereas the Buddha or the Mystic is like the cow that jumped over the moon. He moves into timelessness and weightlessness. You have this power, in fact this power is innate to your consciousness, that is the to transcend your own self-imposed limitations.

Quotations and Excerpts

“Time says, all that you see, all that you perceive, belongs to me! I eat everything… Except for awareness… Because I myself arise out of that Supreme One.”Mooji

“Summer grasses: all that remains of great soldiers’ imperial dreams”Basho

“KYE MA! Listen with sympathy! With insight into your sorry worldly predicament, Realising that nothing can last, that all is as dreamlike illusion, Meaningless illusion provoking frustration and boredom, Turn around and abandon your mundane pursuits.”Tilopa’s Song of Mahamudra to Naropa

“My legacy - What will it be? Flowers in spring, The cuckoo in summer, And the crimson maples Of autumn...”Ryokan

Teaching V: Only Now Exists

“Happiness, not in another place but this place… Not for another hour, but this hour.” – Walt Whitman

The present moment is the only true reality.

Truly none or nothing can dispute this universal truth of the subjective experience of all sentient beings. There is only the now and the experiencing of it, everything else can safely be said to be mere convictions or imaginings projected from the mind as past, future or ideas of the present.

Your heart is very in tune with this fact, but your psychological mind could sometimes be quite reluctant to accept this fully.

“Well what does that mean George?!? You can’t simply expect your own belly to fill itself, you have to plan for the future and safeguard your life! How dare you say that only the now exists, without the planning of tomorrow we wouldn’t be here!”

The above excerpt is one way for the mind to react to someone claiming that only the now exists. Most often these people who would react in this manner are quite attached to their identity, beliefs and convictions about life.

In truth these people have missed the point of existence, which is to evolve and flower into the here and now. It is the immediacy of direct experience, which is the only true “purpose” of life. Everything else is fine, but only for a time, then, life and time will compel you to look deeper into your own being and consciousness.

As I said in the previous chapter, everything is subject to change.

Everything that has ever happened has happened in the now. The now is the only true reality that you’ll experience and therefore deserves your full attention.

Quotations and Excerpts

“When you surrender to what is and so become fully present, the past ceases to have any power. You do not need it anymore. Presence is the key. Now is the key.” Eckhart Tolle

“Remember that man lives only in the present, in this fleeting instant; all the rest of his life is either past and gone, or not yet revealed.” Marcus Aurelius

“Zen lives in the present. The Whole teaching is: how to be in the present; how to get out of the past which is no more and how not to get involved in the future which is not yet, and just to be rooted, centered, in that which is.”Osho

“The moral task of man is a process of spiritualization. All creatures are go-betweens, and we are placed in time that by diligence in spiritual business we may grow liker and nearer to God. The aim of man is beyond the temporal —in the serene region of the everlasting Present.” Meister Eckhart

”We are living in a culture entirely hypnotized by the illusion of time, in which the so-called present moment is felt as nothing but an infinitesimal hairline between an all-powerfully causative past and an absorbingly important future. We have no present. Our consciousness is almost completely preoccupied with memory and expectation. We do not realize that there never was, is, nor will be any other experience than present experience. We are therefore out of touch with reality. We confuse the world as talked about, described, and measured with the world which actually is. We are sick with a fascination for the useful tools of names and numbers, of symbols, signs, conceptions and ideas.” Alan Watts

Teaching VI: Silence is the highest teaching

“In the throne of Silence are manifest the perfections of spiritual beauty. ” – Miguel de Molinos

Silence is the closest to the supreme state of existence. There can be no teaching higher than the teaching that silence conveys. Why? Because silence is stillness and God is perfect stillness. As Plato said, the more you contemplate the perfect the more you become it. Silence is perfect contemplation. It is a timeless sanctity for the Supreme Beings presence to enter.

How can you attain silence? If you have tried meditation or read many books on stilling the mind, you can probably attest to that it is quite impossible to stop the flow of your own thoughts. They just seem to appear without any end in sight, and silence of the tongue is one thing; silence of the mind and the soul is quite another. So to answer the question, how can one attain silence? The answer lies in recognizing that which already is silent within you. True silence cannot be gained as a skill or an ability, its rather an unveiling of what has always been and is always so.

Silence is perfect eloquence as one great master said, it is perfect communication between you and yourself, the personal and the universal, the subjective and the objective. This is why it is sometimes considered and rightly so, to be the highest teaching.

That being said, any other teaching is dependent on meaning and existence in its essence is beyond meaning or meaninglessness. This is precisely why silence as a teaching can help one transcends all the trickeries of ones psychological mind. There is no room for deception or confusion in a perfect silence, not that you can create that perfect silence, not at all but only to dissolve in it and become it.

Therefore dear reader, when all other practices and all other teachings fail you, return to your own silent sanctuary within the retreats of your own soul. It also happens that it is precisely here that you will meet the Supreme.

Quotations and Excerpts

“Be still and know that I am God”The Bible

“”The inner silence is self-surrender. And that is living without the sense of ego. Solitude is in the mind of humanity. Silence is ever speaking; it is the perennial flow of “language.” It is interrupted by speaking; for words obstruct this mute language. Silence is permanent and benefits the whole of humanity…. By silence, eloquence is meant. It is the best language. There is a state when words cease and silence prevails.”Ramana Maharshi

“My love, leave behind all this fruitless thinking And come lay down here in the silence of Being.”Mooji

“A special transmission outside the scriptures Not founded upon words and letters; By pointing directly to [one's] mind It lets one see into [one's own true] nature and [thus] attain Buddhahood.”Chan Stanza

“If you could be silent from all willing and thinking for one hour, you would hear God’s inexpressible words.” Jacob Böhme

“When one remains without thinking one understands another by means of the universal language of silence.”Ramana Maharshi

“From each, Love demands a mystic silence. What do all seek so earnestly? Tis Love. Love is the subject of their inmost thoughts, In Love no longer “Thou” and “I” exist, For self has passed away in the Beloved. Now will I draw aside the veil from Love, And in the temple of mine inmost soul Behold the Friend, Incomparable Love. He who would know the secret of both worlds Will find that the secret of them both is Love.” Attar

Teaching VII: You are not merely your body and mind

“Just as we cannot stop the movement of the heavens, revolving as they do with such speed, so we cannot restrain our thought… Most of these trials and times of unrest come from the fact that we do not understand ourselves.” - Teresa of Avila

Are you your body? Are you merely your mind, thoughts and identity? The body feels intuitive, and it indeed is so. But the more you get to know your body from a meditative perspective, the more you feel that the body is simply there, hopefully alive and functional, but nonetheless there. What one begins to feel intuitively after some meditative efforts is that its functioning is not your doing and its solidity not your essential nature. This same detachment happens when one looks upon ones own mind and thoughts with meditative eyes. They simply are there appearing before you but they are not who you are. They are always objects seen while you are always appear to remain as the one subject that perceives.

That being said, no matter the strength of your identity with the body and mind, you are not merely them, you are not your psychological mind and you are not your physical body. These are aspects of who you are but as I just said these aspects can also be seen as mere objects that appear in your spacious consciousness.

Let me then ask you now, do you feel like an your are an object? Because according to society, family and friends, maybe in a sense you are. But do you feel like it? Can your subjectivity ever be an object to itself? If so, what perceives this subjectivity and from where and with what eyes?

The body and the mind are instruments and vessels for quite an indescribable consciousness. It is this unknowable presence which I dare say you truly are. Space-like, formless and timeless presence that is simply here to experience and recognize all that appears before it. Untouched by all phenomenal appearances that occur on the hyper dimensional screen of your own awareness.

You as a subject can never be seen with separate eyes, your absolute subjectivity is the eye of god itself. When you come close to this sense of being absolutely subjective, you come closer to the womb of existence.

This is one of the final truths that the spiritual seeker is absorbed into. You can never see yourself with separate eyes, your seeing and you are one. No distinctions between you and that indescribable formless eye that permeates all the universes in existence.

Quotations and Excerpts

“The mind in the form of the ‘I’ concept has hidden your original peace, Joy and Love and is now promising to show you how to find them.”Mooji

“But how shall we find the way? What method can we devise? How can one see the inconceivable Beauty which stays within in the holy sanctuary and does not come out where the profane may see It? Let him who can follow and come within, and leave outside the sight of his eyes and not turn back to the bodily splendours which he saw before. When he sees the beauty in bodies he must not run after them; we must know that they are images, traces, shadows, and hurry away to That which they image.” Plotinus

“A beautiful woman looking at her image in the mirror may very well believe the image is herself. An ugly woman knows it is not.” Simone Weil

“Food and clothes sustain Body and life; I advise you to learn Being as is. When it's time, I move my hermitage and go, And there's nothing To be left behind.”P’ang Yün

“Since the soul is in error when it is thoroughly identified with the body, and shares its experiences and has all the same opinions, it will be good and possess virtue when it no longer has the same opinions but acts alone–this is intelligence and wisdom–and does not share the body’s experiences–this is temperance–and is not afraid of departing from the body–this is courage–and is ruled by reason and Nous, without opposition–this is justice. One would not be wrong in calling this state of the soul likeness to God, in which its activity is intellectual, and it is free in this way from bodily affections.” Plotinus

Teaching VIII: The Ego-Mind is Not Your Friend, Not Yet…

Your mind is not your friend… Not yet and not until you are the master of your own palace and not a servant. Your existential palace has been hijacked by some psychological force which we human beings sometimes call the ego. It is a force in nature which to say the least works in mysterious ways, and as it turns out its not only the Lord that works in mysterious ways but also the devil.

The devil is nothing other than this psychological/spiritual force or energy that exists in natures offspring. In some it has a real nasty face in others its quite unexpressed or latent, however this does not change the fact that it is the same underlying process which drives all sentience.

The ego-mind is a mental process which inevitably creates divisions, not only in the world at hand but also within the individual and his existential situation. It is in fact an innate quality to the ego-mind to be divisive.

Additionally and linking back to the last teaching, the ego-mind has a knack of identifying with the body while its most definitely not the body. It needs your consciousness first and foremost and then a physical body to proclaim its existence. The ego-mind claims to be an object, while you are not an object, your consciousness is can never be an object, instead in its essence its what a Zen master called “absolute subjectivity”, a term which I highly revere.

Now considering that I called the ego-mind as the devil, in truth its not all bad, in fact it has an integral part to play in this play and dance of existence. What part might that be, perhaps you are wondering?

Well, simple… To remind you that you are not it and in doing so initiating the process of your spiritual journey back to your own centre and to the very source of existence.

That is why this teaching is called “The ego-mind is not your friend, not yet…”, the “not yet” aspect is there because in this story the devil in the end of the story becomes a servant and not a mischievous rebel that always wants to create trouble.

It has its role to play, but in the end it is to be merged with the greater reality, the reality of your timeless awareness being.

Quotes and Excerpts

“Ego is a structure that is erected by a neurotic individual who is a member of a neurotic culture against the facts of the matter. And culture, which we put on like an overcoat, is the collectivized consensus about what sort of neurotic behaviors are acceptable.” Terence McKenna

“Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.” Gautama Buddha

Teaching IX: Love is the bridge to the divine

“Love abounds in all things, excels from the depths to beyond the stars, is lovingly disposed to all things.” - Hildegard of Bingen

Truly nothing great can be achieved without love, this goes equally for spiritual maturity as for all earnest earthly endeavours. Love is the bridge between the personal and the universal, between the parts and the whole, between you and the divine. Love has the power to dissolve you in your own essential ecstasy, a subtle ecstasy that only arises when an individual beholds his own original face.

The greatest satisfaction a sentient being can experience is dissolution of its own boundaries, whether they are physical, mental or spiritual. Dissolution is the sweetest thing to an entity that believes itself to be a separate self.

Why?

Well, how can one possibly withstand the immensity, complexity and commotion of the universe without the dissolution and unification with something or someone perfect?

Love brings about a promise of this possibility of total dissolution. It is only through love that one can traverse on this bridge of light.

Love harmonizes and unites but does not rigidly bind, therein lies the beauty of it. The love of a mystic is a love towards existence, and the buddha knows that existence is derived out of the supreme principle.

The Supreme Being is the source of all love, and knowing this, being this, you become this love. Now there is no difference between this love and you, this is the greatest grace that life can bestow upon you.

This is the evidence of truth and this is your grace.

Quotations and Excerpts

“The soul is made of love and must ever strive to return to love. Therefore, it can never find rest nor happiness in other things. It must lose itself in love. By its very nature it must seek God, who is love….”Mechthild of Magdeburg

“Love one another, but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.” Khalil Gibran

Teaching X: Your consciousness is immaculate

“I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in darkness the astonishing light of your own being.” - Hafez

Your consciousness is ever pure and perfect, nothing can in reality stain or disturb it. It is ever resting in its own perfection. The ultimate perceiver is a formless eye that never gathers dust, never has it any objections with reality as it is appearing.

The previous teachings have established that you are not merely your body and mind. Well this teaching focus paradoxically on the qualities of your awareness, which is paradoxical because it in itself is without qualities or quantity. It has no distinguishable features that make it recognizable by any external perceiver, this is also precisely why it is immaculate. The same way space cannot be stained by anything that appears in it, the awareness or your nirvanic eye cannot be stained by any experience appearing in it.

What great freedom for the mature seeker to discover, that he and this consciousness is one and the same, and that this has always been so and always will be so.

Such sublime yet subtle ecstasy that grows in ones being when this truth has been established in the heart of the spiritual human being. They may call this one a mystic or a buddha, but no one can take ownership of this light. It is not a quality or a feature that you possess, it is the totality looking out from the locality.

The immaculate is seeing all, allowing all, being all, loving all, nurturing all. Whether you are a Muslim or a Hindu, a Christian or a Pagan, a Jew or a Zoroastrian, a murderer or a saint, a wife or a whore, a beggar or a king, a monk or a prince.

This immaculate eye sees all things without judgement, it cannot be fathomed, it cannot be seen by anything other than itself. Its essence is unspeakable, its qualities indiscernible, its love untouchable.

Have you seen this one? If so, as what and from where? Who could you be to stand apart from this eye to proclaim that you have seen it. Are you speaking from it, through it, as it or are you speaking from where else?

Do you see?

Quotations and Excerpts

“As an old pot is not polished without scrubbing, so is the mind not purified without trials; but the pure Self is ever perfect.”Mooji

“I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in darkness the astonishing light of your own being.” Hafez

“Bodhi is originally without any tree, The bright mirror is also not a stand. Originally there is not a single thing — Where could any dust be attracted?”Hui Neng

“The Self is not in objects, nor are objects in the pure and infinite Self. The Self is tranquil, free of attachment and desire. In this alone I abide.”Ashtavakra Gita

“If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.” William Blake

“The Way is perfect like vast space where nothing is lacking and nothing in excess. Indeed, it is due to our choosing to accept or reject that we do not see the true nature of things. Live neither in the entanglements of outer things, nor in inner feelings of emptiness. Be serene in the oneness of things and such erroneous views will disappear by themselves.”Sengcan

“Is space anywhere supported? Upon what does it rest? Like space, Mahamudra is dependant upon nothing; Relax and settle in the continuum of unalloyed purity, And, your bonds loosening, release is certain. Gazing intently into the empty sky, vision ceases; Likewise, when mind gazes into mind itself, The train of discursive and conceptual thought ends And supreme enlightenment is gained.”Tilopa’s Song of Mahamudra to Naropa

“There are neither good nor bad qualities in the Self. The Self is free from all qualities. Qualities pertain to the mind only. It is beyond quality. If there is unity, there will also be duality. The numeral one gives rise to other numbers. The truth is neither one nor two. IT is as it is.”Sri Ramana Maharshi

Teaching XI: Your Consciousness is Unfathomable

The Dao is called the Great Mother, empty yet inexhaustible it gives birth to infinite worlds.” – Lao Tzu

As I’ve previously mentioned and as I deem it worthy to mention it again is the living truth that you can never see yourself with separate eyes. Your consciousness is the eye of the supreme, and to try to see it with your separate identity mind is similar to planting fruit seeds in an arid desert. It cannot be done or nothing will grow from that endeavour, except for the realization of the futility of it. You cannot see yourself with separate eyes. You can only see yourself if you have become dissolved in the eyes of God.

God is not an entity, or a process. He is unfathomable, in fact, why call him God? This is indeed something I sometimes ask myself. Perhaps equating consciousness as God is counter-productive, especially when considering the history and baggage of the word itself.

That being said, God is also useful as one can easily connect and equate that word with a “perfect being”, and consciousness is indeed such a perfect “beingness”. Existence in its primordial form is formless, immaculate, unfathomable and ever nourishing to all existence. It is not concerned with the mischievous games of the mind; as it is ever beyond all movement and phenomena. Nothing can in reality touch it, as I’m even writing about it, is itself a miracle. The only true goal of life is to dissolve in it, you must dissolve in it, disappear in its light if you wish to know yourself and experience total freedom.

This is paradoxically a way to actually fathom the Supreme Being or the ever-present awareness being that you are, but you can never fathom it as a separate self, hence why it is deemed unfathomable. That being said, even when you are dissolved in the Beingness, you will never lose the sense of mystery of its or your nature. A truly marvellous experience beyond anything else this world can possibly offer.

Quotations and Excerpts

”The mystical experience is a flight of the alone to the alone.” Plotinus

“If you want to be free, Get to know your real self. It has no form, no appearance, No root, no basis, no abode, But is lively and buoyant. It responds with versatile facility, But its function cannot be located. Therefore when you look for it, You become further from it; When you seek it, You turn away from it all the more.”Linji

“There was a door to which I found no key: There was the veil through which I might not see.” Omar Khayyam

“The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao The name that can be named is not the eternal name The nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth The named is the mother of myriad things.” Lao Tzu

“Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)” Walt Whitman

“I am one who is honored, praised, and scornfully despised. I am peace, and war has come because of me. I am alien and citizen. I am the substance and one without substance. Those unconnected to me are unfamiliar with me, and those in my substance know me. Those close to me are ignorant of me, and those far away have known me. On the day I am close to you, you are far, and on the day I am far, I am close to you.” Thunder, Perfect Mind (Gnostic Text)

“There is a thing inherent and natural, Which existed before heaven and earth. Motionless and fathomless, It stands alone and never changes; It pervades everywhere and never becomes exhausted. It may be regarded as the Mother of the Universe. I do not know its name. If I am forced to give it a name, I call it Tao, and I name it as supreme.” Lao Tzu

Teaching XII: Celebrate Yourself

“I celebrate myself, and sing myself. And what I assume you shall assume; for every atom belonging to me, as good belongs to you.” – Walt Whitman

One of the most important things that some or perhaps most spiritual seekers tend to overlook and forget, is that life is celebration. Life is always dancing, moving and vibrating. Life in its spontaneous expressions is not a serious game, only human beings, adult human beings are capable of that expression of consciousness, seriousness.

Life has never been about being serious, life has been about playing and creating. Since the cells were born and also long before, movement and vibration was the defining characteristic of the phenomenal universe. The universe is simply here to dance its dance.

That being said, spirituality in its essence is to find that eternal perfect principle that permeates this movement of the universe, a principle which oozes silence, presence and sanctity. This is the spiritual quest and existential challenge for all spiritual seekers, to find that which is unmoving amidst the ever moving. And it is also precisely this that oftentimes turns the spiritual seeker into rather serious individuals who see themselves as someone doing something incredibly important.

Now all this is an enlarged spiritual ego, which stands in its own way and lives in its own shadow. Sure, it could be seen as a natural and maybe necessary state that happens in the path towards higher states of consciousness, and therefore there is nothing intrinsically wrong with passing through this state, but having said that, maturing out of it is the real spiritual flowering of consciousness. As you might intuitively know, one cannot force mature anything, whether an apple or a spiritual pearl growing in your souls chamber.

All things come around in their own due time.

Quotations and Excerpts

“The meaning and purpose of dancing is the dance. Like music also, it is fulfilled in each moment of its course. You do not play a sonata in order to reach the final chord, and if the meaning of things were simply in ends, composers would write nothing but finales.” Alan Watts

“You can't celebrate anyone in this world, until you celebrate yourself.” Leo Buscaglia

“To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it.”Osho

“The psychotic drowns in the same waters in which the mystic swims with delight.” Joseph Campbell

“I was wedded to all the stars of the sky. There was not a single star left, and I married every one of them with great spiritual pleasure. Then I married the moon.” Ibn Arabi

“A priest once quoted to me the Roman saying that a religion is dead when the priests laugh at each other across the altar. I always laugh at the altar, be it Christian, Hindu, or Buddhist, because real religion is the transformation of anxiety into laughter.” Alan Watts

Conclusion

These twelve insights and teachings are some of the most spiritually nutrient-dense teachings you’ll come across! They contain within them powerhouses of spiritual insights for whomever ready to receive them, and whenever you feel to be existentially thirsting for deeper understanding of yourself and life, I advice you to reread the parts that touched you the most. Moreover I handpicked all the authors listed in the quotations, as I’ve been familiar with their thoughts for many years while creating my quotations database iPerceptive.

As you might have figured out by now, life is an adventure and in this adventure there is a perpetual discovery of the creativity and magnificence of existence of the One being. This formless being has no name and no destiny, no age and no story, it permeates all existence and is never separate from you. Some have called it the Dao, others the Buddha-nature, some called it God, some the Logos. Regardless of any titles it loves you and nurtures you each and every second. Enlightenment is simply the recognition of this supreme presence, and thus in the recognition a dissolving in it happens. Furthermore those timeless teachings listed above are all great pointers and reminders of exactly this universal truth.

You are it and you are already enlightened, your person can never become enlightened, because the personal state lives in time and enlightenment is timelessness.

This is what these truths have in one way or another unveiled unto you, my dear reader! And I wish you a great voyage into your own universal mysterious consciousness!